Convair

history of flight

...neither British, French, Italian, nor other European manufacturers enjoyed much success against American designs. For example, Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, more commonly known as Convair, built the speedy twin-engine 240/340/440 series, with trendy tricycle landing gear, which sold more than 1,000 models between 1947 and 1956, plus several hundred military versions that often...

Boeing and Douglas quickly dominated the market, making it difficult for a later entry, the CV-880, from Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, more commonly known as Convair, to gain a foothold. Convair had stressed speed rather than passenger capacity, but the 880 and the improved 990 that followed it were commercial disasters that almost forced the company out of business.